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William O.

William O.

Joined on 11/27/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

You need this

AMD Athlon 5350 - Athlon Kabini Quad-Core 2.05 GHz Socket AM1 25W AMD Radeon R3 Desktop Processor - AD5350JAHMBOX
AMD Athlon 5350 - Athlon Kabini Quad-Core 2.05 GHz Socket AM1 25W AMD Radeon R3 Desktop Processor - AD5350JAHMBOX

Pros: Fast for its TDP, true quad core, decent capabilities for being overclocked on both the CPU and GPU, GPU is actually good, stays very cool, and fan can be very quiet. The box it comes in is absolutely adorable.

Cons: Mounting fan/HS is...annoying. Lack of dual-channel memory really hurts the gpu.

Overall Review: The GPU does well with lower resolutions, but it absolutely chokes on 1080p resolution games. This is because of memory constraints of the platform. Be sure to get 1600 RAM and also overclock the the gpu base clock and memory clock in msi afterburner. It makes a nice jump from the performance at stock.

What more can you ask for?

XPG V1.0 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600C4G9-RR
XPG V1.0 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600C4G9-RR

Pros: Affordable, low-profile, stable performance, looks pretty slick, and heat spreaders seem to do their job pretty well.

Cons: Often wasn't in stock when I was looking for a second one :) Also, memory is tremendously cheaper now vs. a year ago. Wish I waited :/

Overall Review: This ram is really solid. I have two of these in a HTPC build, and they work phenomenally. ADATA is not as familiar as Crucial, G.Skill, or Corsair, but IMO it is just as good.

11/13/2015

Exceptional PSU

SPARKLE R-FSP400-60ETN 400 W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.92 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Active PFC Power Supply
SPARKLE R-FSP400-60ETN 400 W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.92 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: 80 Plus Platinum, silent, 5-year warranty, good power delivery, cables are pliable, and absurdly cheap(In the monetary way of course).

Cons: Pricey when not on sale.

Overall Review: Quite an amazing power supply though. I got this on shell-shocker + promo code for a cool $25. It hasn't had one stutter, and I definitely have not heard any noise from the fan. It can run my Pentium G3258 at 4.2ghz, in which it doesn't seem to even care. Not really a negative, but it does only have a single 6-pin connector. Another 6-pin doesn't make sense for this caliber of PSU anyways... Also non-modular, but it's not that many cables to deal with once things are plugged in. My set-up: -Intel Pentium G3258(4.2ghz) -8GB's of DDR3 1333(2-modules) -MSI H81I mini-itx -EVGA GTX 750 1GB -1tb WD Blue -Cooler Master Elite 110

11/13/2015

Solid, spacious, and compact.

COOLER MASTER Elite 110 RC-110-KKN2 Midnight Black Steel / Plastic Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case
COOLER MASTER Elite 110 RC-110-KKN2 Midnight Black Steel / Plastic Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case

Pros: Two expansion slots, well built, ample room for components, and able to fit a full size psu(even non-modular). Power LED is dang cool.

Cons: 3.5" HDD was a little annoying to mount, but it made sense when you finally found the proper mounting points.

Overall Review: With how much available room, they should have at least included a slim 5.25" slot.

Works in every way you would hope

MSI AM1I AM1 USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
MSI AM1I AM1 USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Basic, but easy to use bios. Stable. No quirkyness with ram, cpu, or gpu. Fair amount of options with headers. Can bump up the Athlon 5350 to a solid 2.1ghz

Cons: While still easily usable, the bios does look really dated. CPU temp sensor is not accurate in bios(10C seems off a bit).

Overall Review: In speedfan(software), temp 2 is actually the cpu temp.

An excellent value

ThinkCentre Desktop PC M57P 2.30GHz 2GB 80GB HDD Windows 7 Home Premium
ThinkCentre Desktop PC M57P 2.30GHz 2GB 80GB HDD Windows 7 Home Premium

Pros: Quiet, fun layout within case, still relatively capable hardware, decent options for expansion. Works well with my AMD GPU

Cons: Smallish HDD?(Works well enough for Mint, but Win 7 takes a 1/4th of the entire drive...) Only single slot, low profile graphics cards are compatible within this case.

Overall Review: For those that don't know, a fair amount of people have had trouble with certain AMD GPU's and Lenovo desktops. I ordered a 5450 along with this desktop and read about this issue afterwards. Turns out the problem was fixed in a BIOS update. Just google "M57P BIOS" and just follow the directions with flashing it. This PC runs perfectly fine with a 5450.